"Some of the trees throw out shoots from their limbs, which ultimately take root and form separate trunks. The most notable example of this is the verengen: there is one of these trees in the governor's park, which has thrown out so many roots that it forms of itself quite a grove. It belongs, I presume, to the same family of tree as the famous banian of India, and to trees of other name but similar characteristics in other parts of the world.
"One of the most remarkable trees in the Malay Archipelago is said to begin its growth in mid-air. Can you guess how it does so?
A TREE GROWING IN MID-AIR.
"Originally the birds carry the seed of a certain parasite and drop it in the fork of a tall tree. The parasite throws out its branches into the air like other trees, and sends its roots downwards till they reach the ground. They spread as they descend, and form a sort of pyramid fifty or sixty feet high, and so shaped that you can often stand inside and have the body of the tree directly over your head. As the parasite grows it wraps itself around the parent tree, and ultimately kills it; and in this moist climate the dead trunk decays so rapidly that in a few years there is hardly a trace of it left. The branches of the new tree throw out roots of their own that go down to the ground and fasten themselves, and every year sees several new ones. We have no tree like this in the United States, at least none that I know of.
"There is a small river flowing through the valley in front of where I am writing; it comes from the mountains several miles away, and we can trace its course by the little openings it makes in the forest. For a few hundred yards we have it in full view, and then it makes a bend right at the foot of the hill where the hotel stands, and disappears among the tropical trees. Where it first comes into our range of vision there is a bridge thrown across it, and every little while, we can see the natives passing and repassing to and from a village that is concealed under the trees. Very often we see them bathing in the stream, or washing clothes there; when the bathers are a group of boys there is a great deal of fun and laughter, and the scene is quite as jolly when there is a lot of girls in the water. They can swim like ducks, and are constantly playing harmless little tricks on each other, and sometimes in the afternoon their laughter is steadily ringing in our ears. The Javanese Malays are a happy people, if I may judge by the inhabitants of this little village, and they are as fond of the water as so many beavers.
"Before we left Batavia we were told that we should have rain here every afternoon at three o'clock. Fred and I laughed at the suggestion, but the Doctor did not; and we found, on arriving, that we had laughed too soon. Really it rains every afternoon, and it does not vary twenty minutes either way from three o'clock. The clouds form over the mountain in the distance, and then they come sweeping on and on till they reach this spot. The rain comes down first in a sprinkle, then in a shower, and then in a pour, as though some great flood-gates in the sky had been opened as wide as possible, to give the water a chance. The rain lasts from one to three hours, and then the clouds go away and the sky is clear. Sometimes there is a chance for a promenade just about sunset, and sometimes not; in any event, the grass is so wet that we can only follow the roads if we would avoid coming home with our feet soaked.
"We have arranged our plans in such a way as to do our sight-seeing in the forenoon, and devote the afternoon to writing and sleeping.